U.S. Rep. Perlmutter of the 7th Congressional District in Colorado, wants to read the 14th Amendment out loud, which explicitly lays out equal protection for all people, to defend the new health care legislation. (Matt McClain, Associated Press)

WASHINGTON — Stoked by a new-infusion of Tea Party spirit, some U.S. House of Representatives members will read the entire Constitution on the floor at the start of Congress tomorrow.

But Jefferson County Democrat Congressman Ed Perlmutter doesn’t want to be left out.

The lawyer and fierce defender of the new health care law said after his swearing in Wednesday that he is going to try and squeeze in the line of House members already queuing to read the 14th Amendment aloud on the House floor.

The reason Perlmutter picked the 14th, which explicitly lays out equal protection for all people, is to defend the new health care legislation which House Republicans say they are going to try and repeal possibly as soon as Friday.

Your Spotted This Morning correspondent wonders why Bennet continues this game, which doesn’t appear to be working out.

Shortly after Bennet emerged from his primary contest, I warned that trying to label Buck as too extreme for Colorado wouldn’t work, because, as Carroll notes this morning, what motivates Buck is what motivates Bennet: Both candidates argue for thoughtful approaches to complex problems, like streamlining the tax code, and both candidates are willing to compromise to produce fair legislation.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter was one of four governors to write to the attorney general blasting the decision by state’s attorneys general to sue over health care, but it’s what wasn’t in the letter that piqued John Suthers’ interest.

“I think it’s significant that the governors don’t discuss the implications of expanding the current understanding of the commerce power to allow Congress to regulate economic inactivity -to economically sanction you for not buying a particular product or service that the federal government wants you to buy,” said Suthers, Colorado’s attorney general and its highest-ranking Republican.

“If they can do so, there is no limit to the federal government’s control over an individual’s economic decision making.”

Two new ads pan and praise U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey for switching her vote and supporting the health-care reform bill Sunday.

In honor of Northern Iowa, we’ll go first with the ad panning Markey. It’s from the National Republican Congressional Committee and has a basketball/March madness theme.

“It’s March and that means it’s madness. But not basketball madness. It’s madness in Washington. Democrats like Betsy Markey voted for a ‘corrupt’ bill – pork-barrel spending, special deals for Nebraska, Florida, Louisiana. Call Betsy Markey now and tell her to stop the corruption. Stop the madness.

The ads will be aired during the NCAA tournament this week, according to the NRCC.

The ad praising the first-term Fort Collins Democrat is from the Service Employees International Union thanking her and other Democrats who “stood up to insurance companies and other special interests and stood with working families,” according to a news release.

“Support Betsy Markey, she’s standing with us,” an announcer says at the end of the spot.

Sen. Michael Bennet has a new post on a rival blog (no we’re not jealous), outlining his support for the compromise health care reform bill and telling public option supporters that he will continue to push for it.*

As one of eight Democrats who voted no on the previous health reform bill who voted for the revised bill on Sunday (and after being praised for her decision by President Barack Obama on Saturday [see video above]), Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Fort Collins, finds herself in the crosshairs of media attention near and far this week.

A roundup:

The Los Angeles Times this morning reported on the political vulnerability of Markey and the seven other Dems whose votes went from “No” to “Yes,” on health reform.

The Wall Street Journal explores the activism (on both sides) Sunday’s vote is expected to bring to Campaign 2010 in swing districts.

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza counted Markey among his “losers” for being one of eight “flip-floppers” among Democrats whose votes changed from “No” in November to “Yes” on Sunday.

Markey, D-Fort Collins, is one of 39 House members who voted against a health reform bill that passed in November. That group has been courted intensely in recent weeks as Democrats look for 216 votes in support of a compromise measure, which scraps the so-called ‘public option,’ among other changes, from the House bill they earlier opposed.

In introducing a segment on the possibility that the public option may be revived through the reconciliation process in the Senate, Rachel Maddow announced last night that Sen. Mark Udall was the latest lawmaker to sign a letter to Harry Reid supporting the idea.

That perhaps was not surprising, since the blog Colorado Pols had been reporting it all day, sending out a tweet announcing the news. They apparently got it from the DailyKos, an influential liberal blog, whose scribes have been following the number of signers closely – a metric of just how close the Senate might be to reviving the possibility of a government-run insurance option as part of comprehensive health care reform.

Problem is, it’s not true.

Udall hasn’t signed the letter. And has said several times he doesn’t intend to.

How it gets reported as fact on the Rachel Maddow Show, the popular program on MSNBC, is an object lesson in the way that blogs pick up and report information — and the sometimes blurry line between political activism, spin, and journalism.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has received plenty of attention — and from progressive groups, plenty of praise — for authoring a letter pushing Democratic leaders to save the public option through a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation.

He mentioned the letter in a missive to supporters citing differences with primary opponent Andrew Romanoff. And his campaign even created a new website which so far has collected 18,629 signatures supporting the idea.

But according to a report this week on the liberal blog TalkingPointsMemo.com (TPM), the idea belonged less to Bennet then to his House colleague, Jared Polis (D-Boulder), who worked out the strategy with a coalition of progressive groups hoping to revive the government-run health insurance option. Piecing together the letter’s back-story, the report charts the origin of Bennet’s move to a conversation Polis had with Bennet, as the Boulder Democrat and the liberal activists looked for someone to build on the success of Polis’ own letter in the House.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is pressing colleagues to use a procedural tool known as reconciliation to pass stalled health reform legislation — and to include the controversial public insurance option in the bill.

Bennet authored a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking him to bring a health care bill to a vote under reconciliation rules, which would require a simple majority vote but have been condemned by Republicans as legislative high jinks.

“Much of the public identifies a public option as the key component of health care reform — and as the best thing we can do to stand up for regular people against big insurance companies,” said the letter, which so far has garnered signatures from six other Senate Democrats.

It is uncertain whether the path is still open to Democratic congressional leaders, who have been trying for weeks to hash out a way to unstick health care reform legislation.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.